hanging upside down from the rafters

Nursery Rhymes

I will get to the point of this post soon, I promise. I just need to sound off a bit first. I received an email from Waterstones with the ‘thrilling’ news that the cover art for the next Dan Brown has been released. Meh.

Then I switched to Google Reader and found a post on The Book Depository blog (which, I hasten to add, is normally worth reading) with the very same news. At this point ‘meh’ changed to ‘grr’.

Yes, cover art is important for selling books. I often pick up a book purely because the cover grabs me. But, come on guys, seventy days before release? It’s Dan Brown, for chrissake, people will buy it if you put a dissected slug on the cover.

Yes, I really really will get to the point! I’m on the way there, in fact. Trust me.

I’ve been wanting to join a writing group for aaaaaages now, part of what I enjoy so much about the writing classes is the opportunity to do lots of fun stuff with other people:

Talk about writing.

Talk about stuff I’ve written.

Talk about stuff they’ve written.

Talk about stuff other people have written.

Actually do some writing.

And that sort of thing. There’s nothing like spending time with people who share your passion… whatever that happens to be.

I think I might have all of a sudden joined two groups, which is quite a turnip for the books (anyone remember The Great Big Enormous Turnip?). The poetry workshops (which are amazing) look set to metamorphose into ongoing meetings in a pub, and a bunch of us from uni have been set up as a writing group by one of the tutors. We had our first meeting last night, and it was fantastic – a really relaxed atmosphere filled with constructive criticism, appreciation and respect.

At both of these, I had some of my work critiqued yesterday, and I have to say I loved it, really really loved it. Hearing honest opinions, both good and bad, is fabulous. I might be a bit of a masochist, but I actually deal better with criticism than praise. And when someone suggests a potential new avenue to send a piece down, it’s so exciting…

Bouncy bouncy bouncy!

Nursery Rhymes

One of the writing exercises we did last night was to take nursery rhymes and write short pieces inspired by them… it was so much fun! I said I’d put up a blog post with my efforts, and the others promised they’d add theirs in the comments. Please feel free to join in, with or without indicating the title of the original nursery rhyme.

#1

The sergeant jumped down from his horse and stomped into the room. ‘Sorry sire, there was nothing we could do. He fell off the wall in the exercise yard.’

‘Bother,’ said the king. ‘I was looking forward to having him scrambled for breakfast tomorrow.’

#2

‘Dad!’

‘What?’

‘That pervert’s knocking on the window again.’

‘I’m fed up with this. Eight o’clock, every night. I’m calling the police.’

#3

‘Whose bloody idea was this?’ squeaked Billy, puffing and panting.

‘Oh, shut up moaning.’ Johnny looked down at his brother, twitching his tail in annoyance. ‘There’s cheese at the top, you know.’

BONG…

‘Aaargh!’ Billy headed for the safety of his hole in the skirting board at top speed.

Once there, he looked back to see Johnny at the top of the clock, smugly licking crumbs of cheese from his whiskers.

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3 Responses

Not just me who’s underwhelmed by the Dan Brown ‘revelation’ then. Really very dull. Glad to hear you found those writing groups. I need to find one really, but living in Germany makes finding an English speaking group a little tricky.

There is a German woman in our poetry group, writing in English though. I don’t suppose you write in German?
There was a Hungarian woman in one of my classes who is fluent in French and English, and can also speak Swedish and goodness knows what else. I wish I could learn languages… too lazy I guess.